STREATER
The surname Streater is an English name that was originally derived from the Middle English word stre, meaning “street” or “road.” The suffix -er indicates a person who performed a particular function or occupation; thus, a Streater was on the old record an individual who lived on or worked along a street, or who served as a street worker or maintenance figure.
In the Middle Ages the word straet was in use for a paved Roman road, and it later came to denote the main street of a village. As a result, the surname is understood as a topographical name for a dweller on a Roman road or the principal street. Toponymic surnames formed by adding -er to landscape features were common in Sussex, Kent, Surrey, Essex and Hampshire, although the pattern is recognised throughout England.
The earliest surviving record of the name appears in the Subsidy Rolls of Sussex, dated 1332, under the spelling John Streter. This documentary evidence places the surname firmly within early 14th‑century England. Later parish registers provide further continuity, including the christening of Thomas, son of Richard and Anne Streather, on 9 April 1668 in Angmering, Sussex, and the marriage of Eden Streather to John Clifford on 27 July 1718 in St. Laurence, York.
The heraldic description most commonly associated with the family is a silver shield, with a red chevron situated between three hurts, each charged with a silver fleur‑de‑lis; three silver birds with wings expanded appear on the shield, and the crest consists of a silver eagle with wings expanded, beaked and legged in red.
Over the centuries the spelling of the name has varied, producing forms such as Street, Streeter, Stretter and Streese, alongside the persistent spelling Streater. In the United States the name is concentrated in eastern urban areas; Social Security data list Baltimore County, Maryland as the county with the highest rate of births bearing the surname, followed by neighbouring counties in the greater Baltimore and Washington, D.C. regions. The 1990 Census recorded 4,287 Streater households across the country, with the most frequent concentrations in Maryland, Florida and New Jersey.
While the surname appears in limited numbers outside England, it has been found in several continental European countries, often as an anglicised version of local surnames, in Germany as Streiter, in the Netherlands as Strater, and in France as Streter. The variety of forms reflects phonetic adaptation through migration and language contact, but the core meaning related to streets or roads has remained consistent.
Typical given names associated with the Streater surname
Male
- Chris
- David
- James
- Kevin
- Michael
- Paul
- Peter
- Raymond
- Robert
- Ronald
- Stephen
Female
- Jean
- Jillian
- June
- Louise
- Mary
- Olivia
- Rachel
- Sarah
- Tracey
- Valerie
Similar and related surnames
Related and similar names are generated algorithmically based on the spelling, and may not necessarily share an etymology.
How to communicate the surname Streater in...
Braille
⠎⠞⠗⠑⠁⠞⠑⠗
Morse
...-.-...--..-.
Semaphore
There are approximately 184 people named Streater in the UK. That makes it one of Britain's least common surnames. Only around three in a million people in Britain are named Streater.
Famous people named Streater
- Ray Streater - Physicist
Names and descriptions courtesy of Wikipedia, and may contain errors. This is not intended to be an exhaustive list of every famous person with this name.